Batteries, Charging, and using a Winch question.

[CivilEGR]

This past weekend I hooked up a 12V winch to just the front battery. I left the truck running and after pulling one small shrub out of the ground, the winch stopped winding. I turn the truck off and unplugged the winch wondering if something had gone wrong with it. Then I went to restart the truck and it wouldn't crank. I checked the batteries and the front battery was down to about 9 volts, while the rear was still at 12.8.

My questions are, should the truck have revved up when the battery was drawing so low? And the way the 24V system is set, shouldn't the batteries have equaled out? Or at idle speed, does it just not charge fast enough to keep up with a winch?

 

[WWRD99]

This past weekend I hooked up a 12V winch to just the front battery. I left the truck running and after pulling one small shrub out of the ground, the winch stopped winding. I turn the truck off and unplugged the winch wondering if something had gone wrong with it. Then I went to restart the truck and it wouldn't crank. I checked the batteries and the front battery was down to about 9 volts, while the rear was still at 12.8.

My questions are, should the truck have revved up when the battery was drawing so low? And the way the 24V system is set, shouldn't the batteries have equaled out? Or at idle speed, does it just not charge fast enough to keep up with a winch?

Sounds like you have a bad battery, alternator or both. Why not get a 24 volt winch? You gotta remember that the alternator max output is only 100 amps not at idle with 12 volts. Not much.

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[Barrman]

The truck has no clue what the voltage draw is. There is also no mechanism to increase voltage besides your right foot And the cold fast idle solenoid.

The truck has 2 separate 12 volt systems. They join for starting, military radios, slave starting and the stock glow plug system. Otherwise, just the front battery and the drivers side alternator run the electrical system.

 

[98G]

I'm thinking you just depleted the battery.

Charge it and load test it.

 

[nyoffroad]

After finding and fixing the issue, in the future if you need to do and extended winching (or jump starting) I've found that moving the throttle open by hand and placing a nickel in between the throttle and the stop provides a nice high idle. Just remember to remove it before stepping on the 'gas' pedal, I had a truck that had 5 or 6 nickels laying under the IP.

 

[CivilEGR]

Bit of an update. I tested the voltage of the alternators. On the passenger side, I put the positive to the red wire and ground to the alternator case, and got 26.7V. I did the same on the driver side and got only 11.9V. So it looks like I need to replace the drives side.

 

[ToddJK]

In the future, you may want to work that winch for a few minutes and then test the new battery. If it's draining that battery, causing similar issues, I would look into a 24v winch. Depending on the style of the motor in your current winch and the gearing, there are 24v motors you can buy and swap them out, I know there are definitely options for the Warn winches, not sure though on some of the off brands or even the harbor freight brands. This would take the load from both batteries as a whole and probably have a much longer service life to both the batteries and the winch.

 

[WWRD99]

Bit of an update. I tested the voltage of the alternators. On the passenger side, I put the positive to the red wire and ground to the alternator case, and got 26.7V. I did the same on the driver side and got only 11.9V. So it looks like I need to replace the drives side.

Before you replace make sure the gen light turns on with the key.

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[CivilEGR]

Before you replace make sure the gen light turns on with the key.

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Just when you turn the key one click, or when it's running?

 

[WWRD99]

Just when you turn the key one click, or when it's running?

Like when you're waiting for the glow plug light to turn off.

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[CivilEGR]

Update: The GEN 1 light does not light up, so hopefully it's just a bulb. I need to figure out what size as I didn't have any tools to take apart my dash at the time I checked.

Also, for the large electrical connector at the firewall, how do you pull that thing off? I'd like to clean that out as well while I'm doing work on it.

 

[WWRD99]

Update: The GEN 1 light does not light up, so hopefully it's just a bulb. I need to figure out what size as I didn't have any tools to take apart my dash at the time I checked.

Also, for the large electrical connector at the firewall, how do you pull that thing off? I'd like to clean that out as well while I'm doing work on it.

You can reach gen 1 light without taking the cluster out from under the dash...not to tight under there. 194 bulb is what I normally put in there.

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[CivilEGR]

So I switched the bulb out and I'm still not getting a Gen 1 light. Where to next?

 

[CivilEGR]

In my infinite wisdom I remembered I had 2 spare alternators from an old engine I picked up to rebuild and swap. I replaced the drivers side and the Gen 1 light came on right away and the battery it charging fine.

However, I apparently didn't tighten the belt correctly and on my test drive I threw 2 belts and seem to be missing the third. If it's not one thing, it's another.